Tag Archives: ca

Bulky waste dropoff week underway in City of West Sacramento

FROM THE NEWS-LEDGER — Sept 24, 2014

Looking to get rid of some old furniture, mattresses, box springs, cardboard or tires (up to nine)?

The City of West Sacramento’s next semi-annual “Bulky Waste Drop-Off” event will be held Wednesday, Sept. 24, through Saturday, Sept. 27, at 540 Harbor Boulevard. Hours are 4-7 p.m. on the weekdays and 9-3 on Saturday.

Free of charge. Bring proof of West Sacramento residency such as a city utility bill or driver’s license. Seniors (65+) and disabled residents may qualify to have their items picked up: call 617-4589.

Wood and green waste are not accepted at this event. They may be recycled at the Yolo landfill. Watch for a voucher for a free load in your August utility bill.

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Copyright News-Ledger 2014

RCHS gears up for ‘homecoming’

Anamaria Rizo, 16, and Lilly Stall, 14, paint a ‘We Are Raiders’ poster in preparation for Homecoming Spirit Week at River City High School.(Photo by Danny Thirakul, River City High School student)

NEWS-LEDGER — SEPT 24, 2014 —

By Danny ThirakulRiver City High School student

Student stress levels are off the charts! River City High School’s leadership class has been running rampant trying to pull together a successful Homecoming — a full month ahead of schedule! This year’s Homecoming had to be moved up because its original date conflicted with previously-scheduled events.

Homecoming consists of a Spirit Week, rally, football game and a dance. Spirit week is from Sept. 22 to Sept. 26. The dance is scheduled for Sept. 27. The football game is scheduled the night before the dance: Sept. 26.

Although some may think Homecoming festivities are not so hard to put together; that it’s just an event a school puts on, Associated Student Body Board Representative Victoria Visochin, 17, and Senior Class Vice President Nicholas Johnson, 17, would disagree.

Victoria is in charge of Homecoming float decorations and says there have been, “too many hours spent a week working on these floats,” but adds, smiling, “Homecoming is life. Go Big Blue!”

Nicholas stresses that Leadership “has been on an extremely tight schedule,” putting in a lot of work to get it done on time.

It’s not just stressful for the students running the event but everyone else participating. The River City High School Marching Band will be performing at the football game as will the River City High School Cheerleaders. It’s is also stressful for the students who go to these events.

Senior Cecilia Pitts, 18, will be attending the Homecoming Dance. Because Homecoming is a month earlier than usual she says, “It caught me off guard. I had to go dress shopping a lot earlier before all the good dresses got taken.”

Section Leader of the River City High School Drum Line, Michael Cano, 17, says, “The band is very much excited for the homecoming week, but some of us are a little nervous because of the short notice we were given.”

Julia Chapman, 15, is a cheerleader. She says, “We have been working really hard for the Homecoming routine. We have been practicing the routine for the past two weeks.” She says the squad is a little nervous but when it comes down to the performance, “We’ll hit it!”

EDITOR’S NOTE: River City High’s “homecoming” football games are on Friday, Sept. 26, at the home stadium. The team will host Pioneer High of Woodland. The junior varsity game kicks off at 5 p.m. and varsity plays at 7.

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Copyright News-Ledger 2014

Press release: West Sac & region will be ‘Code for America’ centers

NEWS-LEDGER ONLINE — SEPT 24, 2014 —

Press release from the City of West Sacramento, in it entirety:

________________________

From Art Schroeder

City of West Sacramento

West Sacramento, Calif., Sept. 23 – Code for America today announced the selection of the City of West Sacramento, in partnership with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) for its flagship national civic technology fellowship program, along with six other local governments from around the United States.

West Sacramento and SACOG will join the ranks of two dozen nationally recognized leaders in civic innovation such as New York City, Louisville and San Francisco and host a cohort of programmers, designers, and developers over the course of the next year. The governments and Fellows explore answers to local challenges by engaging with the community, building applications, and testing the results. The Washington Post described Code for America as “the technology world’s equivalent of the Peace Corps or Teach for America.”

“Code for America is rapidly transforming America by catalyzing civic innovation in America’s cities to strengthen democracy and reimagine how we create value and services,” said Mayor Christopher Cabaldon. “West Sacramento is excited to lead the nation in partnership with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments as a Code for America city, working not only to spur civic innovation in our own town, but to design that innovation for widespread adoption region wide…spreading Code for America’s transformative impact to small cities and rural towns.”

SACOG Board Chair Steve Cohn says that is the point. “In addition to improving the quality of public services and facilitating co-creation of value by citizens with their local governments, the project will help catalyze our emerging regional technology, coding, design, and development community and startups, strengthening the Code for Sacramento brigade”.

The Code for America Fellowship pairs local governments with teams of mid-career, civic-minded technologists for one year. Over the past four years, the Fellowship program has produced more than 55 web apps with 30 municipal governments and 103 Fellows. In 2014, Code for America began a pilot program to deepen and integrate health-related projects. The governments selected for the 2015 Fellowship will build on prior learnings in health, economic development, procurement, public safety, and justice.

“By working in an iterative, user-centered, data-driven approach, the Fellowship program strengthens key capabilities within local government and communities,” said Luke Norris, Director of Government Relations. “Well beyond the Fellowship, we see city staff continuing to design services for and with the community, make data

meaningful, and make better technology choices. The Fellowship shifts the way cities think about, and use technology to deliver public services.”

Discover BPS, which is still in use by the Boston Public School System was created by the Boston Code for America fellowship team in 2011, making it easier for parents to navigate the complicated process of selecting a school for their child. The web-based application does this by aggregating eligibility criteria, school data, and advanced mapping tools through a user friendly interface (http://www.codeforamerica.org/apps/discover-bps/ ).

Prepared.ly, was created by the Austin Code for America fellowship team in 2012 with assistance from the City of Austin and Texas Forest Service. The application provides a simple user interface for emergency preparedness in order for residents to protect themselves against wildfires. The application does this by providing near real-time information on home and business property risk, offers disaster preparedness checklists, tracks progress and offers reminders while giving users the ability to connect directly with disaster relief professionals (http://www.codeforamerica.org/apps/prepared-ly/ ).

The San Francisco Code for America fellowship team created the app Promptly )in 2013 for the San Francisco Human Service Agency (HSA) in order notify CalFresh (food stamp) recipients when their benefits were going to expire. Although it was originally created for the HSA the app can be reproduced and scaled to provide text reminders for an array of government services and recipient lists (http://www.postcode.io/static/content/promptly.pdf.)

Copyright News-Ledger 2014

Check out open-house & take a walking tour of replacement bridge site

The historic I Street Bridge serves train traffic on the lower level and autos and pedestrians above. It’s at the end of its lifespan, and is slated to be replaced by a new bridge slightly to the north, connecting West Sacramento’s “Washington” area to the Sacramento Railyards region. (News-Ledger photo)

FROM THE NEWS-LEDGER — SEPT 17, 2014 —

The cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento have plans to replace the 103-year old I Street Bridge with a “new low-level, neighborhood-friendly bridge upstream” that will “provide better access for bicycles and pedestrians, and serve motorists more efficiently,” they report.

The project is entering “environmental assessment” phase.

You’re invited to an open house from 3:30-6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9, at the Stanford Gallery, 111 I Street in Sacramento.

The public workshop includes a 5:30 p.m. walking tour of about a mile on mostly-paved roads.

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You can even try it for free for two months if you live in West Sacramento. Just send your name and mailing address to FreeTrial@news-ledger.com (offer open to new subscribers in West Sacramento ZIP codes 95691 & 95605).